The Los Angeles Times (11/11, Glover, Girion) reported that prescription medication overdoses “now claim more lives than heroin and cocaine combined, fueling a doubling of drug-related deaths in the United States over the last decade. Health and law enforcement officials seeking to curb the epidemic have focused on how OxyContin [oxycodone], Vicodin [acetaminophen and hydrocodone], Xanax [alprazolam] and other potent pain and anxiety medications are obtained illegally.” But authorities “have failed to recognize how often people overdose on medications prescribed for them by their doctors.” A Times investigation “has found that in nearly half of the accidental deaths from prescription drugs in four Southern California counties, the deceased had a doctor’s prescription for at least one drug that caused or contributed to the death.”
Related Links:
— “Legal drugs, deadly outcomes, “Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times, November 11, 2012.